


worth a shot (the bottom’s up remix)

by sugarcubeshiro



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (idiots to lovers), Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, POV Outsider, Second-Hand Embarrassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:54:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29818335
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarcubeshiro/pseuds/sugarcubeshiro
Summary: “Don’t worry about it, it’ll all work out for the best,” Shirogane says and reaches across the table to place his hand on top of Keith’s. Maybe it could be seen as an innocent gesture, supportive and friendly, but Shirogane then keeps his hand there. His thumb rubs soothingly back and forth across Keith’s skin, until Keith finally turns his palm upwards so they can hold hands.They are nowholding hands.Right here, in the middle of the Garrison lunch room, at a large table surrounded by all the MFEs and Paladins.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron), Matt Holt & Ryan Kinkade
Comments: 15
Kudos: 117
Collections: Sheith Remix 2020





	worth a shot (the bottom’s up remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lasersheith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasersheith/gifts).
  * Inspired by [A Glass Raised in Botherhood](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16535765) by [lasersheith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasersheith/pseuds/lasersheith). 



> this is my last year's sheith remix for [lasersheith](https://twitter.com/lasersheith), who has written so many amazing (and hilarious) stories i love that it was difficult to pick just one, but kinkade is my fave so ofc the fic with him and matt being buddies has always had a soft spot in my heart :')
> 
> this is set sometime after the original fic, it prob works on its own but please make sure to read (or reread!) sam's fic too because it's seriously incredible!!!

**Monday**

“You did great today, Keith.”

The borderline besotted tone of Captain Shirogane’s voice makes Kinkade stop in his tracks where he’s walking down one of the Garrison’s hallways.

“Come on, Shiro,” he hears Keith say next. They have to be standing right around the corner, just out of view.

“What? You did.”

“Well, so did you, then.”

“Wh—? Keith.” Shirogane huffs, clearly amused. “I’ve just been doing boring paperwork all day.”

“Exactly!” Keith laughs. “So have I.”

“But—I—that’s different, Keith.”

“Yeah?” Suddenly Keith’s voice sounds so much lower, and Kinkade grimaces to himself. He can practically picture the way Keith is leaning in towards Shirogane with twinkling eyes as he hears him murmur, “How so, Captain?”

Kinkade lets out yet another one of _many_ dramatic sighs at what fools those two are. He’s sighed a lot in the past months. As he turns around and heads back the way he came, he figures this time it might technically be his own fault for staying long enough to eavesdrop, but—it doesn’t even matter, really. Shiro and Keith always manage to make literally _everyone_ around them incredibly and, at times, uncomfortably aware of how into each other they are. There’s no escaping Keith and Shiro’s oblivious pining, and it’s something everyone at the Garrison has been more or less forced to accept, since the only people who don’t seem to get it are the two men themselves.

It’s hardly Kinkade’s place to tell the guy who’s technically his boss that Keith loves him back, though, no matter how frustrating it might be to constantly witness their unsubtle pining. And given the amount of bets going around the Garrison over when those two will finally get their act together and _get_ together, he doubts anyone else will ever say anything either. No wonder he sometimes finds himself drifting off, daydreaming of someone smacking Shirogane over the head with a sign that says _Keith Wants To Bone You Too_ in bright neon letters.

Kinkade’s wish for something like that has been especially strong this week, since he doesn’t even have his usual go-to buddy around to share his pain. Matt Holt is lucky enough to be away on some Olkari mission as a favour for his younger sibling, the Green Paladin.

And—god, Kinkade realizes with a start.

He’s already suffering, and it’s only _Monday._

**Tuesday**

“Don’t worry about it, it’ll all work out for the best,” Shirogane says and reaches across the table to place his hand on top of Keith’s. Maybe it could be seen as an innocent gesture, supportive and friendly, but Shirogane then keeps his hand there. His thumb rubs soothingly back and forth across Keith’s skin, until Keith finally turns his palm upwards so they can hold hands.

They are now _holding hands._

Right here, in the middle of the Garrison lunch room, at a large table surrounded by all the MFEs and Paladins.

Kinkade swallows his bite of food and looks at Griffin directly across him. They’re both sitting right next to Shirogane and Keith, and Griffin appears to be experiencing the same kind of mixed pain and pity as Kinkade.

“What are we, uh... talking about, again?” Kinkade says, unsure if he even wants to know. This is almost worse than that one time during lunch when Keith had pulled out his phone to show Allura some pictures, and when Kinkade overheard Keith ask, _“Isn’t he adorable?”_ he’d naturally assumed Keith was talking about his wolf. But it wasn’t the wolf. Instead, what Keith couldn’t stop cooing over were some photos of the Captain that he’d sent while away visiting his family.

Kinkade stares at their joined hands where Keith has now started playing mindlessly with Shirogane’s fingers.

As expected, neither of them seem to think there’s anything odd about this. Kinkade wonders what people would think if he reached across the table and did the same to Griffin just because _they’re_ best friends.

“Keith dropped his ice cream cone.”

Kinkade blinks. “I—what?”

“The free dessert everyone got today?” Shirogane sounds like he can’t possibly understand what could be confusing about any of this. “Keith’s fell off his tray and onto the floor.”

“It’s fine, Shiro,” Keith mutters with a pout that makes it clear it’s not fine, while still holding onto Shirogane’s hand like he’s desperately in need of the comfort and support. Kinkade almost rolls his eyes. He, and probably everyone else in this room, knows what Keith’s _actually_ desperately in need of.

“You can have mine,” Shiro says.

“No!” Keith’s eyes widen. “Shiro, you—you’ve been so excited to finally have a cheat day, I couldn’t—”

“Keith. It's nothing, really. You know I'd do anything to make you happy, and if this—”

Kinkade stares forward again, feeling a piece of his soul leave his body. He’s pretty certain he sees Griffin’s eye twitch while Shirogane and Keith continue to argue over whose happiness matters the most.

With a sigh, Kinkade goes back to his food, doing his best to tune them out.

It’s impossible.

**Wednesday**

Kinkade already knew how an impromptu movie night would go the second Leifsdottir and Veronica invited him. Veronica joining them meant it wouldn’t just be the MFEs, which meant that all of the Paladins, including Shirogane, would be there.

He really hates how this is his life now—his friends ask him to do something fun, and Kinkade’s first thought is of how much second-hand embarrassment he’ll be subjected to by the unofficial love birds of the group.

When he’d asked Veronica if there was any chance Shirogane or Keith wouldn’t show up, Veronica had told him that she’d actually heard them talk about going there together, and then given him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. It might have worked better as a comforting gesture if she hadn’t ended it all by laughing loudly at the pained look on Kinkade’s face.

Of course it’s easy enough for her to laugh.

She’s not the one currently squished up against the armrest of the couch in Leifsdottir’s room with Captain Shirogane snoring loudly right next to her.

While Veronica’s snuggled up comfortably in a huge armchair with Rizavi and Acxa on either side of her lap, Kinkade has been catching glimpses of Keith stroking his fingers through their fearless Captain’s hair for the last thirty minutes or so. The movie had barely started before Shirogane started to scoot down a little in his seat, and it wasn’t long after that Kinkade watched from the corner of his eye how he slowly but surely tipped against Keith’s side. At first Kinkade almost had a moment of disbelief, where he wondered if they finally _had_ gotten together, and he’d somehow missed the big announcement. Surely not even those two could be so obtuse as to think that platonic cuddling between two bros during a movie night is a thing, right? _Right?_

Wrong.

This is Shiro and Keith, as Kinkade quickly got reminded of about two seconds later when Keith lifted his arm, wrapped it around Shirogane’s shoulders, then pulled his sleeping form closer. Shirogane had let out a deep, content sigh, and snuggled up with his forehead resting comfortably against the crook of Keith’s neck.

Now Kinkade dares a glance over at them, just in time to see Keith tip his own head to the side, resting his cheek against the top of Shirogane’s head.

Thankfully he gets interrupted from letting out a frustrated groan when his own phone vibrates in the pocket of his jeans. He tries to shift a bit further away from Shirogane’s broad body where he’s sunk down in the seat, asleep with his legs spread and taking up practically half the couch.

Kinkade just barely manages to wiggle his phone out without getting to his feet, but at least the text he sees once his screen lights up instantly puts a smile on his face.

**(22:12) Matt Holt  
**HELLOOOOOOOOO BUDDY how are things??? I’ve been busy busy busy myself ever since I left, only time I’ve had free so far has been when (hopefully!!!) all of you crazy Garrison kids have been deep asleep. How’s everything on Earth? Still peaceful??? Or do I have to grab Pidge and come back right away to help fix some major universe threatening disaster?? Because seriously, just let me know. I’ll do it. You know I love Pidge but last night they made me sleep in a TREE sooo like... I’m not even sure what’s going on anymore. Ok all joke’s aside i miss our daily talks buddy lmao I gotta run now but ill see if I can call some time this week when we’re both free take care

**(22:13) Matt Holt  
**ps say hi to shiro&keith from me and tell them theyre disgusting

Kinkade snorts to himself as he reads, and has just started typing back when his phone vibrates with another message.

**(22:15) Veronica McClain  
**You seem pretty comfy over there buddy, friendship really is magic huh? 😂😂😂😂😂😂

He lifts his gaze to find Veronica grinning at him from across the room where she’s still sitting in the armchair, before she not-so-subtly jerks her head in the direction of Shirogane and Keith.

Kinkade glances over again to the two men cuddled up next to him, only to notice that the hand that Keith’s been stroking through Shiro’s hair has stilled, and they’re now both asleep.

He holds down another sigh, glares back at Veronica, then presses himself further up against the armrest and prays for peace as he goes back to texting Matt.

**Thursday**

“Really think you can take something this big, Paladin?”

“I’ll handle whatever you’re willing to give me, sir,” Keith says.

Shiro crosses his arms. “We’ll still need you rested and in top shape when you leave for your mission with the Blades this weekend. You know I appreciate the offer, Keith, but I can’t have you going out of your way to do me favours only for it to end up affecting your performance elsewhere.”

They’re already standing so unnecessarily close, yet Keith steps even _closer._

“I’m telling you, Shiro, I can do this,” he says, fiercely determined. Their faces are barely six inches apart as Keith tilts his chin up to meet Shirogane’s dark gaze, and there’s no mistaking the way Shirogane’s eyes flick down to blatantly stare at Keith’s lips. “I know it’ll be a tight fit, but I don’t care how much work I have to put in to make it happen. We both know I’m the perfect guy for this. Who else could even do it?” He reaches for Shiro’s bicep, squeezing it once before he starts to rub it, then murmurs huskily, “Let me be what you need, Captain.”

“Nope!” Kinkade pulls his helmet off before promptly twirling around, heading straight for the doors leading out of the hangar. Whatever orders the Captain has for them, Shirogane can share those once he’s finished his weird little overtly sexual—but somehow still completely oblivious—foreplay with Keith.

“Hey, what’s his issue?” he hears Lance call behind him.

“Aw, and here things were just starting to get good, Ryan!” Rizavi’s words get followed by a cackling laugh. “I was excited to see where it all went!”

Kinkade shudders, ignoring Captain Shirogane calling his name, and leaves.

**Friday**

The thing is, Kinkade likes Keith.

He doesn’t know many other people that he can sit silently with and not have them get all weird about it within minutes. Either they talk until Kinkade makes it awkward because he doesn’t know how to make them realize he’s not always looking for a conversation just because he’s in public, or they expect _him_ to say something which always ends up making things even more awkward.

Keith’s a cool dude, though. Just like with Kinkade, a lot of people seem to mistake his moments of silence for rudeness or broodiness. He guesses it kind of works in Keith’s favour if a lot of people naturally tend to stay away from him nowadays, since Keith’s somewhat of a celebrity after having saved the whole universe and all that, but Kinkade still knows the image the general public has of Keith doesn’t match with reality. Keith’s one of the sweetest guys he knows, and he always enjoys hanging out with him. Sometimes they’ll talk about ships and space, sometimes Kinkade shows Keith a video he’s editing, sometimes they’ll simply sit quietly and sketch together. It’s nice.

Drawing is the reason Kinkade headed up to the Garrison’s rooftop this evening. It’s a beautiful night, the air cool but not cold and the sky is clear with not a cloud in sight, so he put on his comfiest sweater and grabbed his sketchpad before leaving his room.

Keith was already sitting up on the roof on a blanket when Kinkade got there, alone and leaning back against a wall, studying the stars. And just like the sweet and friendly guy that Kinkade already knows he is, Keith quickly invited Kinkade to join him, and Kinkade didn’t hesitate before taking him up on that offer.

It’s how he finds himself sitting next to Keith now, laughing while sharing a burrito that Keith had brought as a midnight snack, when the door leading up to the rooftop suddenly opens again.

“Keith? I thought I’d—oh.”

Captain Shirogane stops in front of them, looking not so much ‘Captain Shirogane’ at all anymore. Instead of his usual Garrison uniform, he’s wearing jeans and a simple blue henley, his bangs flopping over his forehead a little less neatly than Kinkade is used to seeing, and the smile quickly falls away as he takes in the sight of them. All of a sudden he kind of looks more like a kicked puppy than a defender of the universe.

“Sorry,” Shirogane says and clears his throat before he tries to put the friendly look back on his face. “I, uh—didn’t realize I was interrupting something.”

“You weren’t interrupting!” Keith hurries out and starts to get to his feet, even though Shirogane holds up his hands as if to stop him. “I was waiting for you.”

“It’s fine, Keith, don’t worry about it,” Shirogane says as Kinkade stands up too, mostly because he knows he’d feel weird still sitting down and munching on his last piece of burrito once those two inevitably start having a passionate conversation about how Keith would love nothing more than to spend all his waking—and, let’s face it, probably sleeping too—hours with Shiro right next to him.

He’s fully planning on excusing himself and leaving them to it, but Shirogane’s apparently not done yet as he beats him to it and keeps talking.

“You two seem to—be enjoying yourselves,” Shirogane says, still with a smile on his face even as he turns his gaze on Kinkade, then gives him a steely look that Kinkade’s _never_ had directed at himself before from the Captain. “I wouldn’t want to get in the way. I’ll just leave you guys to—”

“Hold up,” Kinkade says.

He likes to think of himself as a pretty patient person. He doesn’t easily blow up at others, and other than people-watching or filming things for his personal projects and amatuer documentaries, he doesn’t like to _actually_ get involved in other people’s business. He doesn’t talk a whole lot, so when he does, he tends to choose his words carefully.

Despite it all, he honestly thinks he would have managed to put up with the weird UST and millions of missed opportunities for those two to get together, for however long they would need. Their business is their business. But what he will _not_ put up with is being used as some sort of ridiculous excuse for Shirogane to avoid reality. If it had been anyone else, maybe Kinkade could understand where Shirogane’s coming from and admit that this does look a little suspicious. He is, after all, on a rooftop with Keith, basically having a nighttime picnic beneath the stars together.

Keith didn’t even know that Kinkade would be here tonight, though, and Kinkade would bet anything that Keith had high hopes this whole time that Shirogane would be the one to find him and sit on that big, comfy blanket with him. And knowing Shirogane, he wouldn’t have thought for a second that _that_ was anything but some friendly stargazing between two best buddies, if he were the one who’d been sitting next to Keith right now. How can he look at Keith hanging out with another guy and immediately think that’s romantic, but be so oblivious to everything they have going on?

“Are you freaking serious right now?” he says and turns towards Shirogane.

“What?” Shirogane says. He’s got a poker face to battle the best of them and Kinkade’s never been the best at reading facial expressions, but just like the murderous look he couldn’t hide a moment ago, Kinkade swears he sees surprise—maybe even uncertainty—flicker across Shirogane’s face.

“Really?” Kinkade says as his own annoyance finally bubbles over. “You’re really just going to stand there and keep playing dumb?”

“What’s going on?” Keith says and crosses his arms, looking between Shirogane and Kinkade.

“Oh my god,” Kinkade mutters to himself and pinches the bridge of his nose just to gather his own wits for a second. These idiots. These absolute _clowns._ He drops his hand and looks directly at Shirogane again. “Sir, with all due respect—I’m not interested in Keith like that. Like, _at all._ But you know what? He’s a really great guy, and anyone would be lucky to have him. So unless you man up and finally just tell him you’re in love with him, maybe next time you walk in on him with another guy it’ll be someone who actually _is_ trying to date him, and I don’t think you have any right to be such an ass about that.”

He doesn’t give either of them time to respond. Kinkade quickly snatches up his sketchpad and hurries away while both of them still stand staring open-mouthed at him.

“Wait, Ryan—” he hears Keith say behind him just as he reaches the door, but he ignores it, heading for the staircase and letting the door shut behind himself with a loud _click._

**Saturday**

Falling asleep last night hadn’t been an issue when Kinkade was high on how good it had kind of felt to speak his mind on this particular topic, but during the morning the regret and somewhat embarrassment over his own outburst start to kick in.

After debating for forty-five minutes over whether he should text Keith to apologize or not, he finally decides to simply put his phone on silent before shoving it under his pillow and making the bed. Then he heads out for a run—he doesn’t want to risk bumping into Shirogane by going to the gym—to clear his head, and after taking a long shower once he’s back home, he decides to distract himself further by baking bread. While the bread rises, he mixes together the ingredients for a batch of cookies from a recipe he’s been tinkering with for the past weeks, then works on a script for a short film that he hasn’t even looked at in months.

Avoidance is evidently a great tool for productivity.

It’s been hours by the time he even thinks of his phone again, and although he’s enjoyed having a calm day to himself of simply doing things he likes, he can’t help but feel a bit dramatic for his reaction.

Still, he does get a little nervous again when he fishes his phone out from under his pillow, and his heart skips a beat when he sees that he’s got four new texts from Keith. It’s quickly replaced by disappointment when he notices the missed call from Matt, however, and maybe that’s what makes it easier to open Keith’s messages right away.

**(09:43) Keith :)  
**hey, i just wanted to say sorry for last night? are we good?

**(09:48) Keith :)  
**or maybe it’s shiro who should say sorry but he’s embarrassed and definitely wouldn’t do it over text anyway. should probably prepare yourself for a long apology speech next time you see him lol :)

**(09:59) Keith :)  
**also even more than sorry i want to say thank you but i don’t know how to do that over text without making it weird, but i think it might be even weirder face to face. so seriously thanks because last night was really awkward at first but we clearly needed to hear that and i have no idea how you even knew because honestly i had no idea? but yeah if you hadn’t said something then last night would never have ended up as not-awkward and actually really great as it did, so......okay i am making it weird now so i’ll stop but thank you from both of us

**(09:59) Keith :)  
**:)

  
  


Kinkade blinks at the messages for a moment, feeling both surprised and strangely touched, before a smile spreads on his face and he quickly starts typing his reply.

**(14:33) Ryan Kinkade  
**Ofc we’re good! I’m sorry for butting in like that yesterday, honestly I'm kinda glad you're not the one mad at me, haha. Really happy for you guys tho:) see you tomorrow at practice!!

**Sunday**

Out of all the intimate moments that he’s had to witness between Shirogane and Keith in the past months, Kinkade does find it amusing that seeing Shirogane press a kiss to Keith’s cheek when they think no one is watching after they’ve all been running flight drills, is what feels like one of the least intrusive sights. But now it's mostly sweet, and he's just happy for his friends. Given how chaste and shy that one kiss seemed, he even almost, _almost_ dares to hope that the PDA might actually calm down between them now when they're finally official. He honestly doesn't have the strength to imagine anything else—he's going to enjoy this moment of relative peace for as long as humanly possible. Or however long it lasts, at least.

He still hasn’t had time to talk to Matt properly since the missed call yesterday, but it’s only a few more hours now until Matt will get back to Earth and the Garrison, so Kinkade picks up his phone, and grins to himself as he sends him a new text.

**(16:27) Ryan Kinkade  
**Hey buddy! I’m sure you’ll be busy tonight but seriously let me know as soon as you have time to meet. I have beer and BIG news to share. :D xx

**Author's Note:**

> tysm to the sheith remix 2020 for the wonderful event & sticking with me until i could finally post this, to [liz](https://twitter.com/disloyalpunk) for editing & cheerleading, and to [audrey](https://twitter.com/cosmicbeebees) & [sharki](https://twitter.com/leftishark_) for all the encouragement while i tried to remember how to write 🥺🖤
> 
> comments are always super appreciated if you feel like leaving one !
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/sugarcubeshiro) // [tumblr](https://sugarcubeshiro.tumblr.com)


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